To Sleep or To Blog...That IS The Question These Days!

I have a feeling I'm not alone in this sleep vs. blog dilemma, at least not amongst fellow bloggers who have toddlers or pre-schoolers. I used to have a very nice little nightly routine which started out with a little snuggling, then teeth brushing, a few books, a little rocking and finally, a little back rubbing to get my little guy off to sleep. Well, those days are seemingly O-V-E-R!!! It seems I've given birth to a miniature version of ME...one who likes to sleep late and stay up VERY late. Now, of course, this is all well and good over the weekend, but come school nights (and mornings), this is not so good!!

The current routine goes something like this...

7 p.m. Bath time

7:30 - 7:45 Chase him around trying to get PJs on and tackle him to the floor to brush teeth

7:45 - 8:00 Read books and rock a little

8:00 Into big boy bed

8:10 Up to try to go potty (trip #1)...usually a false alarm, but who can be sure?

8:20 Up to try potty (trip #2)...also usually a false alarm...my patience is wearing thin now

8:30 Up to try potty (trip #3)...Third time is a charm! Which is what makes it SO hard to say "no" the first two times!!!

8:40 Finally get him all settled again, feety pjs back in place, blankets, pillow, baby Wilbur...check!

8:50 Back to the back rubbing...

9:00 Exit room (me, not him hopefully)

9:15 Intermittent threats yelled from my office to his room...useless, but sometimes makes me feel better all the same

9:30 Watching the monitor as he throws everything out of the bed...pillow, blanket, and even little baby Wilbur...patience at an all time low now...

9:45 Gritting my teeth as I hear "momma, I'm cold"...but even a frustrated mommy can't keep from going in and picking up the blanket and covering her little one...I'm quite sure there's some mommy guilt alarm that goes off that overrides all other emotions

10:00 Back rubbing his back again (by now I've definitely clocked enough hours to earn some masseuse certification) ...down to the last prayer I can remember from Sunday School and about to fall asleep myself while kneeling at the side of the bed

10:10 SUCCESS at last!!! Woo-hoo!! Of course, the cheering doesn't last long because I then realize that I've spent over 2 hours on this little bedtime routine and still have yet to go downstairs and clean up from the toddler tornado that hit the house earlier that morning, day, evening...oh God

11:15 House somewhat resembles a picture I once saw of it when we first moved in...well, at least I've managed to find the carpet buried deep beneath the toys and of course, the Toys R Us room is kinda sorta back in order (the definition of "order" has certainly evolved over the past few years...used to be that everything had to be in its place, not it's acceptable as long as you can walk across the room without stubbing a toe or tripping over something...LOL)

11:45 All things for the morning are ready including his clothes, mine, his backpack and mine, including, of course, the 3 changes of clothes that I had to wash that night that need to go back to school for potty "accidents" (which I've learned are not really, really "accidents"...but we'll leave that for another day)

12:00 Teeth brushed, my bedroom straightened up...I've come to realize that there's some magnetic force hidden somewhere in my room that causes stray toys to migrate there during the day...in the bathroom, in my closets, under my bed, in my bed, on my dressers, on the treadmill...you name a place, there's some kind of toy hanging out there...back they go to my office (AKA, the satellite Toys R Us room on the second floor)

It's at this point that I think...blog or sleep?!?!?!?! And, obviously over the past couple of weeks, you know which choice I made!

One thing I've definitely noticed is that the LESS Jake wants to sleep the MORE I want to. And wow, I've NEVER slept as deeply as I do since having him!!! I don't really even dream much any more and when I do, I dream about sleeping...LOL Before Jake, I used to have a hard time falling asleep at night...that's done. I used to also have a really hard time falling back to sleep if awakened by something or someone...way done! These days, I can answer a middle of the night request for a drink, or chase away monsters or move over to make room for a middle of the night visitor and within 30 seconds, I'm back in the land of the sleeping dead. BOOM, O-U-T!

I always wonder how it is that mommies can actually do this?? I can be totally OUT and Jake can just sigh heavily or roll over and make a little sound and I'm AWAKE looking at the monitor...checking to make sure everything is OK, and then... BOOM O-U-T again!!

OK, so that was just a long winded way of saying I realize that I haven't blogged in almost 2 weeks...YIKES! Where to begin?? Probably best with a new post...